Sizing

Sizing — the Fleet Routing Lobby

Novel work enters via this sizing lobby, not directly into plan/shape/dispatch.

The EM's first move on any PM ask that isn't a mid-workstream continuation — before coordinator:plan, coordinator:shape, or direct dispatch. Full framing and every worked incident: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/docs/wiki/sizing-lobby.md.

Dispatch authorization — invoking this skill IS the request. The dispatches named below are constitutive steps of this skill, not a separate thing to get cleared: invoking a skill requests the actions that skill performs. A harness line permitting dispatch "unless the user requested it" is therefore satisfied here, not overridden — no precedence claim is needed and none is made. Re-asking spends the very context the dispatch exists to protect. The rule attaches to skill entry and dissolves no PM-authored gate: keyword-gated skills gate entry, and every gate a skill names for itself still binds — per-session cross-repo-commit assent, ask-before-external-action, and any other this skill's own body names. Tripwire: UNATTRIBUTED-HARNESS-LINE-IS-NOT-PM.

Reuses loe.tshirt (XS–XXL) one altitude earlier than chunk-sizing, to pick a ROOM, not a plan-body cost. No appetite question ahead of the size.

The flow

1. Form a t-shirt read (XS–XXL) of engineering complexity only, never appetite. Calibration table and the tentativeness guard: wiki. A confident XS/S with a clear PM express-lane signal skips to Step 3.

1b. Premise-provenance, every non-express-lane sizing. Does the ask rest on a mechanism EXECUTED, one only READ, or no mechanism claim at all (not-applicable, narrow)? Pass --premise-provenance executed|read|not-applicable; there is no --evidence flag — the written justification goes in the sizing-object's own premise.evidence at Step 4. The engine's next_move carries the discharge text, never hand-derive it.

2. Substrate probe — L/XL/shaky reads, mandatory on XXL. Reuse cartography output (architecture-survey/-audit); for judgment the engine can't emit, dispatch the internet-research-scout payload. Feed --probe-signal collapse|raise, --scout-evidence-kind mention-count|change-set|site-count, and on any raise, --probe-raise-basis ask-scope|substrate-condition|breadth — the engine applies only ask-scope; a finding about the area's condition, or a uniform touchpoint count, is not a size signal (discriminator detail: wiki). Chain coordinator:spike first if the probe surfaces an unproven mechanism.

3. Compute the route — never hand-derive the table. Invoke sizing-assemble per the ladder in snippets/resolve-coordinator-bin.md — rung 0 (Shape W, the .exe launcher through the call operator) on a PowerShell host:

`& "$env:COORDINATOR_SETTINGS_HOME\bin\sizing-assemble.exe" --tshirt <XS|S|M|L|XL|XXL>`

--tshirt is the only required flag; never pass/invent --appetite unless the PM volunteered one verbatim. Always pass --intent "<PM's words>" (--intent-source em-elaborated if it's your own restatement), --precedent shipped-before|novel, --boundary-in-notch yes|no (§ Appetite guards has the discriminator), the Step 1b/2 flags as answered, and --jtbd-unclear/--well-trodden-step-change/--express-lane as the ask warrants. Push the returned route/detents/next_move verbatim — it already carries the discharge text.

4. Scaffold the sizing-object (coordinator-doc-new --type sizing-object) for any non-express-lane sizing, populating intent/estimate/route/detents/scout_evidence and the property-attests verbatim from the returned fields. Undecided direction-class items go in surfaced_to_pm, never folded into fork/xl_exit. Optionally populate name — a few words, whiteboard length; never a slice of intent.

status. An XS routes to dispatch and has no plan: stamp it shipped yourself the moment the work lands, citing the commit. S and above route into a plan, where the terminal cascade owns the sizing-object stamp: never pre-empt it, and never hand-stamp instead of triggering it. The cascade fires from the terminal stamp the close-out ceremony produces (d-stamp-plan-implemented / close_out_and_stamp) — from the stamping op, not from the landing. A plan whose status: implemented was hand-edited and committed directly never fires it. Then read status back — that is the field the cascade writes, and the only one that answers whether it fired. A sizing still routed under a plan stamped through the op is a finding. Under a hand-landed plan it is expected, and the repair is to run the close-out that stamps the plan (/workstream-complete's d-stamp-plan-implemented), not to hand-write the sizing row. Hand-write ONLY on a status that did not advance under a plan stamped through the op, citing the landing commits and this rule inline. Never hand-write on one that did — that races a live writer and loses unsafely. Do not read acted: it belongs to a different op and is empty either way. Tripwire: ACTED-IS-BLIND-TO-THE-DELIVERABLE-CASCADE.

4b. Open the flight recorder on the resolved route — every route, before anything downstream. TaskCreate: one session-goal task naming the ask and the sizing-object path, then one task per remaining stage of the chain the route implies, through its terminal. The chain is the route's, not your judgment: dispatch → the work → quick-wrap. spec-dispatch → light plan → executor dispatch → scoped code-reviewer + review-integrator → quick-wrap. plan → plan → plan review → execute-plan → /workstream-complete. shape/roadmap/pm-decision → the named room owns its own chain; record the entry task and stop. Terminal by size, not by feel: XS/S close at quick-wrap, M and above at /workstream-complete. Where the harness tool is absent, the coordinator-tasks-mirror fallback carries it.

The point is that the whole chain is visible from the lobby — a PM or an EM can see at a glance what a route commits the session to, and a stage nobody reached is a pending row rather than a thing everyone forgot. Downstream steps ADD to this list, they do not restart it: execute-plan Phase 2 and the spec-dispatch light terminal open per-chunk tasks beneath these stage rows, and a second session-goal task means one of them re-created a recorder that was already open.

5. post_size_prompt_pending (M+) — ask once, in the PM's register, and stop: "Looks like an X — go with that, split it, cut it, what's up?" Never a closed fork. Record the answer in pm_resolution (and fork when cut/raise-shaped). Expires at plan ratification.

5b. route: pm-decision bundles into the same ask. xl_exit stays null (open, never "accept") until the PM actually picks one, by test: shape (JTBD not stated, or the EM can't falsifiably restate the problem in the PM's words), roadmap (spans ≥2 named workstreams, or carries/needs an initiative FK — split is retired into this exit), or accept_multi_session (neither above holds — one coherent job, clear JTBD, one workstream, simply large — and the PM has explicitly assented; writing xl_exit: accept_multi_session IS that record, never a silent fallthrough default).

6. Hard gate — the only override that exists. The t-shirt→route map binds absolutely; no named-reason override, no ratifier. If a route feels wrong, the size read was wrong: fix the size with evidence (symmetric resize, or the plan⇄sizing return edge) and let the table re-resolve. pm-decision is a routed outcome, not an exception.

Appetite guards — judgment the engine's flags cannot resolve alone

appetite is the PM's stated budget, populated only after the size lands. Rationale and incidents: wiki § appetite, § The newer guard flags.

• A volunteered appetite never moves the estimate. Size from the work alone.
• A cross-team dependency is a gate, not a size. The boundary ceremony goes in blocked_by/awaiting_gate, never the t-shirt. A memo doesn't move the notch; negotiated co-design (the shared contract is itself the unknown) does — answer --boundary-in-notch accordingly.
• A touchpoint count is not a depth read (--probe-raise-basis breadth, § Step 2).

Shape is a conditional room, not a second lobby

route=shape fires only when the size is large AND the JTBD is unclear, or the space is well-trodden and the ask wants a step-change — both engine-resolved from --jtbd-unclear/--well-trodden-step-change, never an EM gut-call.